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Live Story of the Year pics
(Winter 2006) by George Dionne
I used to laugh when I read things like "The Lost Interview." I always thought
that it couldn't be possible. How could you lose an interview (they're usually
with legendary musicians too)? Well that's what happened to my interview
with Josh Wills of Story of the Year. I chalk it up to not reading the directions
to my new digital voice recorder. I though I had taped over it. Low and behold
it was just trapped between the layers of other interviews.
Josh's interview
was conducted around the time Story of the Year was passing through the
Massachusetts area on the Taste of Chaos tour back in February of 2006. I
had their album
In the Wake of Determination (read
CD review) lying around the office for
a while. I just thought they were another band from the major label cookie-cutter
machine.
Once I saw them live, I simply had to listen to the album. I never heard
or saw so much energy from a non-headlining band. I was also pleased to
hear their chorus based, melodic (yet heavy) sound. Josh was cool to talk
to, and I hope you enjoy his interview.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Story of the Year, how would
you describe the group’s music to me?
JW: Rock!
RIL: That easy enough.
JW: There are too many genres nowadays to try and pigeon
whole ya. We’re
just trying to be a rock band and make music that we like.
RIL: When and where did the band form?
A: We formed in St. Louis. Me, Dan (Marsala), and Ryan
(Phillips) had all been playing together in different bands. We were skateboarding
together
since we were fourteen fifteen years old. It’s been ten years now
through that. Dan and Ryan had a band with some different members that
sort of formed into Big Blue Monkey for a while. Then they kicked the singer
out and the bass player quit. Adam started playing bass, Dan started to
sing, and they got me to play drums. We had another guitar player, Greg,
for a while. He left the band and we got Phil in 2000. We were signed in
2000, so that’s when Story of the Year was born. It all seems fuzzy
to me right now.
RIL: Speaking of when you got signed, how did you land the record deal with
Maverick?
JW: We had made a home video when we were still here
in St Louis. It was like forty minutes of us being stupid. It was like a
promo video of the band,
and I was with Big Blue Monkey at the time. We won a radio contest in St.
Louis to play a big radio show with Goldfinger. We were just going to videotape
all the bands. We showed it to Goldfinger on their bus. A week or two later,
their management in California called us, and they wanted to take us on tour.
When we went on tour with Goldfinger, an A&R person from Maverick gave
us a showcase at the Viper Room at eleven in the morning. About two o’clock
that same day, they called us back with a record deal and there it is.
RIL: How did Big Blue Monkey become Story of the Year?
JW: We pretty much decided that the name change was
needed anyway; despite the fact our label thought it was a chump name too.
When you hear Big Blue
Monkey you just think dopey and not serious and stuff like that. I mean,
we‘re not serious guys all the time, we’re goofballs. We do stupid
stuff, but our music isn’t goofy. Our music is very serious and we
put a lot of work into what we do. We didn’t want the first thing that
you hear is our name and you think goofball. We wanted to have something
that represented us a lot more. Story of the Year was a song that we put
out on an EP with Big Blue Monkey. We figured by keeping it in the family
that people would still associate it with us.
RIL: You have a couple of catchy anthem type songs on your latest
album In the Wake of Determination. How are people reacting to “We Don’t
Care Anymore” and “Our Time is Now?”
JW: As far as our actual fans, they like them, but
I don’t think radio
likes to play us as much as the first record. The second record is a little
heavier. There’s more screaming in it. The radio stations don’t
like that apparently. “Take Me Back,” the second single, is doing
better than “We Don’t Care Anymore” on the radio. It’s
still kind of weird; I’m hearing from everyone right now that the whole
music industry is kind of whacked out of shape. It’s a hard time to
be in a rock band. Our shows have been well received from where I’m
sitting when we play. We just kind of wanted to come out and whoop ass with
the heavier stuff this time. It, it goes over really well. Overall the whole
record is going over well, but it’s not being put out on the radio
or MTV, so it’s kind of a bummer. What are you going to do?
RIL: Are you using the Internet or touring to get your stuff out there?
JW: Definitely. Touring is number one. That’s how we make fans and
that’s how we make money. No band nowadays makes any kind of living
off record sales. It’s not the eighties anymore. Touring is first and
foremost. The Internet is a necessary evil I would say. It’s done us
more good than bad, especially with our first record. That was so Internet
promoted, and that’s how we gained a lot of our fans. The record sales
would come in every week and we would be like whatever, what’s our
show going to be like? We cared more about who’s coming to our shows,
who is seeing us live, rather than actual record sales. Half those people
probably heard us once on the radio and they won’t buy the next one.
It’s a weird, it’s hard to explain. There are so many people
that have such a short attention span with music. You put something out and
six months later nobody likes you anymore. We defiantly rely on touring.
RIL: What songs do you like the most on the new album?
JW: Listening or playing?
RIL: How bout playing?
JW: Playing “Meathead” is probably one of my favorites, because
that’s a big accomplishment for me. I didn’t grow up as a punk
rock drummer. Doing a song like that, and being able to play it, is a big
accomplishment for me. [The band] would come to me with all these songs with
punk rock like drum beats and I would go, I’ll try it but…When
I grew up there were those dickheads that came to shows just to beat someone
up. They weren’t there to listen to the music; they would just get
in the pit, get drunk, and get in a fight. Those people were very annoying
to me. Lyrically, that’s where the song hits home for me. Other than
that, “Five Against the World” is pretty cool because it’s
about us as a band, what we accomplished, and what we had to do to get where
we are. You have to love playing “Fate,” it’s pretty intense.
RIL: On the liner notes of “Five Against the World,” the band
Boston is listed as an influence. You sound nothing like Boston, what’s
that about?
JW: That was more Phil (Sneed) and Ryan I think. I
dig Boston, don’t
get me wrong. I loved the big songs that they had. I’m not a huge Boston
fan, it was more them than me. Who doesn’t love Boston?
RIL: True, but not too many people are willing to admit they love Boston.
JW: They can’t admit it, but when it comes on the radio, they’ll
sing along.
RIL: Why does Adam (Russell) go by the nickname The Skull?
JW: We gave him that nickname a long time ago. Ryan
gave him that nickname because he has a shaved head, and the shape of his
head is more skeletal
than a normal one. He’s got a lot of prominent bone structures, so
it looks like he’s got a huge forehead too.
RIL: What has been the highlight of your career thus far?
JW: Probably right now being able to share the stage
with the Deftones every night. That’s my all time favorite band. They have been my favorite
band since Adrenaline came out in ‘95 or ’96. That’s
amazing for me. It’s was amazing when we were signed to the same
label as them too. We always talked about doing a show with them and stuff
like that. I feel like I’m fifteen every night. I watch the Deftones
every single night and it doesn’t get old.
RIL: Do you get to hang with them?
JW: Yeah, they’re way cool dudes. That’s refreshing to me because
I’ve herd so many horror stories about people who meet their influences,
and they turn out being big dicks.
RIL: There are rumors that they’re not getting along with each
other. Are they getting along?
JW: Yeah, they are. I’ve herd some things form the past on how they
don’t like each other, but as far as I can tell, there doing well.
RIL: You’re currently on the Taste of Chaos Tour and you have
played the Warped Tour in the past; what is it about festivals that appeal
to you?
JW: Its just a way to reach new people. We get new
fans that we would have never gotten on a normal tour. Every night we go
out there and put on a show,
not just for our fans, but we try and pick up new fans along the way. When
we come back to that city, we have bigger shows. There’s really no
other reason. You just have more people to hang out with too at festivals.
RIL: Is there any significance to the color green and the group?
I had noticed that you had a lot of green clothing on stage, the guitarist
had a green
guitar, there was a lot of green lighting on stage, and the album cover has
a lot of green. What’s the deal?
JW: Poison! That’s the eighties metal influence coming out. Ryan designed
most of our artwork and he’s obsessed with the eighties. It’s
pretty much the Poison green.
RIL: Story of the Year is signed to Maverick Records as we mentioned earlier.
Have you met label owner Madonna yet?
JW: No, we got hosed on that! We were told when we
were starting that if we went gold that we would meet Madonna. We went gold
and now she doesn’t
even own the label anymore. There’s no chance in that anymore I guess.
RIL: When I interviewed fellow St. Louis rock act Adair, they mentioned
they were friends of yours. Do you have any funny stories of you hanging
out with them?
JW: I’m sure there are tons. Actually, on the
third night of this (Taste of Chaos) tour, we paid their manager $175 to
drink Adams pee out of a water
bottle. That was pretty insane. I think he actually drank it.
RIL: I wish I had that information before I interviewed them (read
it here).
JW: That is probably one of the best stories.
RIL: Did you have to start low on the price and work it up to $175?
JW: I think it was just one of those things like; we’re getting some
money together so Sid can drink some pee. He said I’ll do it for this
much, and it worked out from there. We have are own video.
RIL: You’ve got to put that out on DVD.
JW: (Laughs) |
JOSH
WILLS
